In This Issue I Le numero de ce mois

In This Issue I Le numero de ce mois-ci
A
t the SSAC session of the Society of Architectural Historians annual meeting in Seattle in 1995. chaired by
Jacqueline Hucker, scholars Christopher Thomas. Rhodri
Windsor Liscombe. Howard Shubert. and Kelly Crossman
addressed aspects of West Coast Modernism and regionalism
through the works of architects Arthur Erickson. F.T.
Hollingsworth. Richard Henriquez. and Ron Thorn. The first
three of these papers are presented in this issue of the Bulletin.
In "Reconciling the Universal and the Particular:
Arthur Erickson in the 1940s and 1950s," Christopher
Thomas asks. Who was this "slippery character"? Was he a
B.C. regionalist, a rising Canadian architectural star. a
North American organicist of the Wrightian sort. a Corbusian
neo-pri mitivist, an architectural Abstract Expressionist or
an International Modernist and neo-Ba uhai:ts ler?" All of
these. says Thomas: he was clearly more than the CoastStyle modernist house designer he may have seemed at the
time. Thomas documents how, by 1953 , mentors such as
artist Lawren Harris, architect-ed ucator Gordon Webber,
and Erickson's mother, plus his own extensive travels, had
already planted in him the seeds of larger visions and
higher ambitions than his West Coast locale.
Rhodri Windsor Liscombe outlines the career of
Vancouver architec t Fred Thornton Hollingsworth from his
earliest eco nomical houses to his sophisticated recent commissions in "Organic Modernism: The Architecture of F.T.
Hollingsworth.'' Hollingsworth's early modular post-andbeam houses. planned to be erected with maximum
efficiency at minimum cost, exemplify the postwar Modernist
objective of crea ting inexpensive, broadly accessible, good
design. Hollingsworth's belief in an organic approach to design,
however, has mitigated the often necessarily utilitarian
Modernism of the majority of his work. By manipulating
form , plane. pattern, and tex ture to create an experientially
enriching architecture which respects natural settings and
materials. Hollingsworth has made a significant contribution to the complex evolution of what is commonly. if
simplistically, called the West Coast style.
In "Making History Beco me Memory: The Architecture of Richard Henriquez," Howard Shubert notes that
most Canadian architectural critics who use the word "regional" defin e the concept in terms of geography-mountains,
trees. lakes--and climate. By contrast. says Shubert. Richard
Henriquez creates an architecture that extends beyond the
consideration of locally specific materials. vocabulary or
landscape to encompass the history and the memory of a
site: underlying his work is a strategy to uncover and express
his own interpretation of the history and possible meanings
of a site. and to alert people to the significance of their own
history as something vital. While no one would call this a
regionalist arc hitec ture. says Shubert. it is most definitely
an architecture of place.
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Ia seance de Ia Societe pour !'etude de !'architecture au Canada.
tenue lors de Ia reunion annuelle de Ia Society of Architectural
Historians a Seattle en 1995 et presidee par Jacqueline Hucker. les
chercheurs Christopher Thomas, Rhodri Windsor Liscombe. Howard
Shubert et Kelly Crossman ont traite de divers aspects du modernisme
et du regionalisme de Ia Cote ouest dans les travaux des architectes
Arthur Erickson. F.T. Hollingsworth. Richard Henriquez et Ron Thorn.
Nous vous presentons les trois premiers de ces exposes dans le presen t
numero du Bulletin.
Dans !'article intitule «Reconciling the Universal and the Particular: Arthur Erickson in the 1940s and 1950s>>. Christopher Thomas
pose Ia question : «Qui etait cet 'inclassable'? Etait-il un regionalists de
Ia Colombie-Britanniquc, une etoile montante de !'architecture canadienne.
un organiciste nord-am ericain dans Ia lignee de Wright. un neo-primitiviste de !'ecole deLe Corbusier, ou appartenait-il a l'expressionnisme
abstrait architectural. au modernisme international et au neo-Bauhaus 7 >>
«A taus ces courants», repond Thomas. «manifestement, il etait plus
que le simple dessinateur de maisons modernistes dans le style de Ia
Cote ouest qu'il a pu sembler etre a l'epoque. >> Thomas montre comment.
des 1953, des mentors tels que !'artiste Lawren Harris. l'architecte et
educateur Gordon Webber. Ia mere d'Erickson et des voyages prolonges
avaient deja plante en lui les germes de visions plus larges et d'amb itions
plus elevees que son environnement de Ia Cote ouest.
Rhodri Windsor Liscombe retrace Ia carriere de l'architecte
Fred Thornton Hollingsworth. de Vancouver, depuis ses premieres
maisons eco nomiques jusqu'a ses reuvres recentes complexes. dans
son article «Organic Modernism: The Architecture of F.T. Hollingsworth>>.
Les maisons modulaires a poteaux eta poutres des debuts de Ia carriere
d'Hollingsworth. cont;:ues pour etre construites avec un maximum
d'efficacite et un minimum de couts , traduisent l'objectif mod erniste
d'apres-guerre decreer de belles habitations peu coftteuses et accessibles
au plus grand nombre. Mais !'approche organique du dessin adoptee
par Hollingsworth a attenue le modernisme sou vent necessairement
utilitaire de Ia plus grande partie de son travail. En manipulant les form es.
les niveaux. les motifs etles textures afin decreer une architecture offrant
une experience enrichissan te et respectueuse des emplacements
naturels et des materiaux. Hollingsworth a fourni une contribution importante a !'evolution complexe de ce que !'on appelle communement.
bien que de fat;:on simpliste. le style de Ia Cote ouest.
Dans son article «Making History Become Memory: The
Architecture of Richard Henriquez>>. Howard Shubert note que Ia plupart des critiques d'architecture canadiens qui utilisent le mot «regional>>
definissent ce concept sous !'angle de Ia geographie-les montagnes ,
les arbres. les lacs--et du climat. Par contraste. ecrit Shubert. Richard
Henriquez cree une architecture qui va au-deJa de Ia consideration des
materiaux specifiques locaux, du vocabulaire ou du paysage pour inclure l'histoire et Ia memoire d'un lieu: sous-jacente a son travail se
trouve une strategie destinee a decouvrir eta ex primer sa propre interpretation de l'histoire et des significations possibles d'un lieu . eta
eveiller les gens a !'importance vi tale de leur propre histoire. Selon
Shubert, personne ne parlerait dans son cas d'une architecture regionaliste, mais il s'agit tres certainement d'une architecture enracinee.
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